Tough go for the Yankees last night in the second game of this Second City weekend series. They didn’t pitch well and they didn’t hit much. Baseball games are hard to win when you don’t do those things.

Bryan Mitchell got the spot start and he showed flashes of the potential that’s always kept him on the Yankees’ top prospect lists. His fastball was lively and his curveball drew some swings and misses. He also gave up a lot of hard contact and the White Sox got to him for 4 runs in his 4 innings of work. Alexei Ramirez tagged him for a solo home run in the bottom of the 2nd, which is always embarrassing, and he set the stage for Melky Cabrera‘s 3-run homer in the 5th that basically put the game away.

Didi Gregorius was responsible for the first Yankee run on a 3rd inning sac fly. It could have been a 3-run home run if it wasn’t for Avisail Garcia making a leaping catch at the wall. …

The 2015 non-waiver trade deadline came and went yesterday and it was the quietest deadline in years for the Yankees. Despite being connected to plenty of players in the weeks and days leading up to 4 PM yesterday, including almost every big name pitcher, they ended up making just the one move to pick up Dustin Ackley. Since there aren’t a lot of trades to talk about, I figured I’d expand the deadline analysis to the whole roster and look at what other things the Yankees did to try and bolster their roster for the stretch run.

– But first the Ackley trade. I didn’t have a strong feeling about it one way or the other when it was announced on Thursday, and I still really don’t. At a high level, it makes sense for the Yankees. They traded from their 2 sources of greatest prospect depth and upgraded a part of their Major League bench. …

The Yankees were reeling heading into Chicago for this weekend series. Coming off 2 straight losses for the first time since July 7th and a trade deadline that passed without them making any more moves, they were basically a dead stick and set up to miss the playoffs altogether. They needed a miracle to get the ship righted and they got one in Carlos Rodon. He served up a ton of tasty pitches early and the Yankee bats feasted on them to build a big early lead that they would never give up.

The Yanks got to Rodon for a run in the 1st on a pair of doubles by A-Rod and Carlos Beltran sandwiched around a Mark Teixeira walk. Teix factored much more prominently in the scoring in the 2nd when he hit a 2-out grand slam to give his team a 6-0 lead. The top half of the order was locked in on Rodon and they knocked him out in the 4th after Chris Young doubled to lead off the inning and scored on 2 wild pitches, and A-Rod walked again. …

No Palooza today, because I was honestly expecting the Yankees to make another trade before the deadline. They didn’t, but they did make one move, the move first reported above by Mark Feinsand.

It makes a lot of sense. Severino doesn’t seem like he needs to learn much at the Triple-A level, and he fills an obvious need in the rotation. The Yanks probably have him on an innings limit for the year, so he can pitch now and when Pineda returns they can swap him in for Severino and cap his innings for the year.

No official word yet on when he’ll make his start, but it sounds like he lines up to face the Red Sox next week. No pressure or anything.

Yesterday was certainly a less than ideal day for the Yankees with their biggest competitor in the division getting an ace pitcher, the Yankees losing one of their best ones and losing a tough game on a walk-off hit. The Blue Jays are certainly a threat to the Yankees in the division with the additions of David Price and Troy Tulowitzki. However, with the six game lead the Yankees have in the AL East if they can take care of their own business it doesn’t matter who Toronto picks up. People are forgetting that the Blue Jays running down the Yankees would not just mean the Blue Jays getting hot, but the Yankees cooling off considerably as well. Both have to happen.

Michael Pineda‘s forearm injury turned the starting pitching need into an even greater one. If Pineda starts throwing in 7-10 days like he says he is supposed to then a month seems about reasonable for his return.…

We’re down to mere hours now. We’ll follow the latest developments here as the day progresses and break in with any actual trade news if and when it happens.

– The Yankees are in heavy on relievers today, with both Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman‘s names coming up multiple times. They were reportedly working on a deal for Kimbrel last night, but talks continue to stall based on the Yankees’ willingness to include Jorge Mateo in a deal.

I know he’s been a big part of some great moments for us as Yankee fans, but I’m really sick and tired of watching CC Sabathia start for the Yankees.

His starts are painful to sit through and it’s not fun going into the games having thoughts like, “Which inning will be the bad one?” “How many home runs will CC give up?” “When the hell will the Yankees stop running him out there?”

No, seriously, when the hell will the Yankees stop running him out there?

This is starting to feel like 2000 David Cone (no offense, Coney) and how even though he was having major issues, Joe Torre kept him in rotation. Cone finished that year with a 4-14 record and 6.91 ERA in 29 starts. And while CC isn’t quite at that level yet, he’ll be there soon (current run environments put Cone at a 70 ERA+ and Sabathia at a 71 ERA+), and the Yankees need to do something about him.…